28 March 2018

The next phases of our Knowledge Gateway research and technology park is taking shape next door to our now thriving Parkside Office Village.

Our new Innovation Centre is is taking shape.

The next phase of Parkside – just beside the current site – will be ready for autumn 2018 and the level of interest from potential tenants is already high.

Across the road, our £12m Innovation Centre is taking shape thanks to a £2m grant from Essex County Council plus £2m from South East Local Enterprise Partnership’s Local Growth Fund.

We’re on track to open the Innovation Centre in spring 2019 and it will provide a home to more than 50 start-ups and fast growing hi-tech businesses.

The success of our Start-up Hub at Parkside which has seen our team help establish 20 registered companies is also giving us confidence about what we can achieve at the Innovation Centre.

We’ll share more detailed plans soon including our proposals for a state-of-the-art digital suite which can build on our artificial intelligence and virtual reality.

Our partners are sharing our excitement.

Cllr Kevin Bentley, Essex County Council’s Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Economic Growth, told us: “Essex is leading the UK on start-ups of new enterprises and Essex County Council’s investment of £2million into the Innovation Centre at the University of Essex demonstrates our commitment to support these businesses by providing the right types of workspaces.

“We also recognise the importance of Colchester as a digital cluster and this investment will help to further enhance Colchester’s presence in this sector.”

The businesses and organisations now at Parkside have given us a solid foundation to build on.

We’ve invested a total of £50m so far in creating our Knowledge Gateway research and technology park to bring together great infrastructure, talented academic researchers, space for start-ups, and opportunities for anchor tenants to establish new regional centres on our campus.

Our long-term vision is to create more than 2,000 high-value jobs within 15 years by offering a home to more start-ups, SMEs and global businesses.